''Peeping Penguins'' is a 1937

animated cartoon Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

directed by

Dave Fleischer Dave Fleischer (; July 14, 1894 – June 25, 1979) was an American film director and producer who co-owned Fleischer Studios with his older brother Max Fleischer. He was a native of New York City. Biography Early life and career Fleisch ...

and produced by

Fleischer Studios Fleischer Studios () was an American animation studio founded in 1929 by brothers Max and Dave Fleischer, who ran the pioneering company from its inception until its acquisition by Paramount Pictures in 1942, the parent company and the distri ...

for

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...

. It is part of Fleischer's

Color Classics ''Color Classics'' are a series of animated short films produced by Fleischer Studios for Paramount Pictures from 1934 to 1941 as a competitor to Walt Disney's '' Silly Symphonies''. As the name implies, all of the shorts were made in color for ...

series.

Plot

Four

penguins Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

are curious about an abandoned cabin. Their mother warns them in a song that "curiosity kills the cat". They ignore her, partly because she hypocritically displays her own curiosity over a stovepipe that they knocked to the ground. The penguins joyfully enter the cabin through the chimney. But inside the cabin, they find themselves in danger: two fiddle with a kettle of hot water and get hurt, one gets hurt when trying to operate a gramophone record, one wants to touch pepper, but he sneezes every time he gets near it, and one fiddles with a gun and accidentally gets his beak stuck in it, but he later gets it freed. Eventually, a penguin from the group plays with matchsticks, and fire is accidentally created in the process. The fire comes to life and attacks him. The penguin who was playing with the gun accidentally makes it start shooting around. A bullet from the gun hits a box of signal flares, causing it to fall near the fire, and upon being lit, all the flares start flying around the house, causing extreme mayhem. Finally, one flare sends all the penguins flying out of the house and high into the sky. They all fall back into the snow, and when their mother comes back, they apologize and say in unison, "We'll promise never to be curious again". The four penguins are forgiven, but then a moving mound of snow catches the attention of all five penguins, and it rises up, revealing that it is a

polar bear The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a large bear native to the Arctic and nearby areas. It is closely related to the brown bear, and the two species can Hybrid (biology), interbreed. The polar bear is the largest extant species of bear ...

. The

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

roars ferociously, causing the penguins to run away in fear.

Production

''Peeping Penguins'' was directed by

, and animated by

Myron Waldman Myron Waldman (April 23, 1908 – February 4, 2006) was an American animator, best known for his work at Fleischer Studios. Early life Waldman was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 23, 1908. He was a graduate of the Pratt Institute, where ...

and

Hicks Lokey William "Hicks" Lokey (April 5, 1904 – November 4, 1990) was an American animator. He is best known for his work at Fleischer Studios. Lokey was born in Alabama. He spent his early years in the animation industry at Van Beuren Studios, anima ...

. It was produced by

Max Fleischer Max Fleischer (born Majer Fleischer ; July 19, 1883 – September 11, 1972) was an American animator and studio owner. Born in Kraków, in Austrian Poland, Fleischer immigrated to the United States where he became a pioneer in the development ...

and

Adolph Zukor Adolph Zukor (; ; January 7, 1873 – June 10, 1976) was a Hungarian-American film producer best known as one of the three founders of Paramount Pictures.Obituary ''Variety Obituaries, Variety'' (June 16, 1976), p. 76. He produced one of Ameri ...

under Fleischer Studios. The film was colorized using

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

. The score was composed by

Sammy Timberg Samuel Timberg (May 21, 1903 – August 26, 1992) was an American musician and composer for the stage, film studios, and television. Biography Timberg was born in New York City to a Jewish family originating in Austria, youngest son of Israel an ...

and Bob Rothberg.

Release

''Peeping Penguins'' was released on August 26, 1937, and distributed by

References

External links

* Fleischer Studios short films Color Classics cartoons 1937 animated short films Paramount Pictures short films Short films directed by Dave Fleischer Animated films about penguins 1937 films 1930s American films {{short-animation-film-stub